Garganelli per il mio figlio

Fresh garganelli

My son loves pasta, and, homemade, hand-rolled pasta is no exception.  There are times where his preference for the more labour intensive version is not ideal given all the other things I/we have to do in a day but, at the same time, I'm glad for that because it's something that we can do together.  He likes to lend a hand and eating the final product makes us both happy.  I'm happier still that he has continued to be adventurous in trying new foods.  We were a bit worried that he'd eventually become a fussy eater like his Canadian cousins but so far that hasn't happened.  Yet.

So, a few years ago, to add variety and maintain some traditions, I started making pasta with a vengeance.  And while we love filej here at la tavola, I was looking for a shape that could be made with egg pasta and was at least partially hand rolled.  Farfalle filled that void for years and still does.  Then, I saw these in La Cucina Italiana circa 2012 and decided to add them to the repertoire.

 

To get going, I had a small gnocci board that I used with a dowel/large chopstick but the chopstick was a little small.  So I went on a mission to find out one of the implements that I saw in the article and had only ever saw for sale on Italian kitchen sites:  pettine per garganelli.
 

Traditionally made on a jute comb (pettine), there wasn't much on line and even though I could have asked i nostri cugini to ship one over,  I decided to look for something made on this side of the pond.  And I found artisanal pasta tools.com.   
 

I thought about the traditional format, but as I had been using a board already, I decided to buy the 'hybrid' garganelli board. I'm happy with my easy to clean board, 3 dowels and lovely little storage bag.  I may still get the other one some day but we'll see.  Until then, this works a treat!

Grazie Terry Mirri..  



A gentle boil, nothing more.

Garganelli with pancetta, asparagi, fungi, fonduta and a smattering of basil and baby spinach.

Mangia!